The Writers Guild of America


Across America, writers of TV and screen have downed pens to protest over the rates paid by the moguls of the major studios. The WGA strike for an increased percentage of online sales of their work is indeed a serious business. The last pay increase afforded these talented writers was back when video first appeared. As it was a 'new medium', the stingy studios awarded them about 3 cents per billion sales. And that's the last payrise these wonderful (think Desperate Housewives, Simpsons) writers have seen since. At the moment they receive diddley squat from DVD sales and rightfully reckon that they deserve a bigger slice of the pie.

This You Beaut YouTube clip shows just how much these mongrel moguls are raking off the top.
It features, amongst others, Australia's first potential cryogenic candidate, father-in-law to the lovely Sarah O'Hare, Rupert Murdoch.

Whilst this strike is a serious action on the part of the Writers Guild, I fear their nature and raison d'etre isn't helping any. Rather than the picket line resembling our strikes of the 70s, with the wharfies and the BLF exhibiting all kinds of champion biffo and thuggery, writers are a creative lot, and therefore more likely to be a bunch of sensitive wimps. It's a bit like if our Musos' Union staged a picket line.

"Gee, is that Jack, heck haven't seen him since "Hello, Dolly". Bill, great to see you, what is it ? 20 years. Channel 9 sure was good in those days. Let's nip over to the Rose and Crown for a schooner."

Apparantly American writers are of much the same ilk.

Lee Goldberg of "Monk" and "Diagnosis Murder" fame reminisces
"Back when the WGA struck in 1988, I was a starry-eyed newcomer in television. Walking the picket line each day was a chance to meet my TV writer idols and enjoy a master class in TV writing."

" ...I walked the picket line with legendary writer/producer William Blinn and we spent the whole time talking about TV, I was the happiest writer in Hollywood. He shared anecdotes about writing for 'Bonanza,' 'Maverick,' 'Gunsmoke,' and 'Roots'..."

Fast forward almost 20 years and Goldberg is back on the picket line, with one difference, he's accompanied by his 10 yr old daughter. "She thought the writers were way too polite to people coming and going to the studio and that we should have been causing more of a ruckus."

Hardly the stuff of Jack Mundy.